Last minute event promotion ideas to attract more people
1 . Introduction
So, your event is mere days away, and the tumbleweeds are rolling a little faster than you’d like through your online registration portal. Don’t fret, dear event planner! Even with the clock ticking like a time bomb, new doors open up and there are ways to inject some last-minute magic to get people hyped for your upcoming event.
Whether it’s the perpetual procrastination pandemic that’s cast its long shadow on your event planning, or budgeting and other administrative constraints, or even simply that the event itself has been decided pretty abruptly and its design and execution has fallen into your lap out of nowhere, here are some effective ‘stitch in time’ event promotion ideas to mend your promotional crisis and help you sail through the occasion.
2. Why is event promotion indispensable?
“You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin
The difference between (silent) panic at the disco and a full house is an effective event promotion strategy, one that exhibits your understanding of your target audience, your sales goals and rationally allocated budget and resources with incessant ROI assessment.
- A well-crafted promotion campaign is like a catchy tune, your planning sidekick that gets people excited and talking. Social media posts, email blasts, and strategic partnerships and collabs spread the word like wildfire, building anticipation and making your event the hottest ticket in town.
- With the right event marketing ideas in your arsenal, you can create greater brand awareness and reach out with your message to yet-untapped sections of the audience.
- Promoting locally helps you ground your event and introduces a relatability factor, allowing prospective attendees and customers to feel closer to your brand.
- By leveraging smart, socially adaptable and out-of-the-box event promotion ideas, you ensure that your brand (and event) is the talk of the town and stays in the conversation for long.
3. Event promotion ideas you can execute at the last minute
You may not have enough time on your hands to execute a BTL marketing campaign or invite A-listers to lend their charm to the event, but here, through a few smart tips and event marketing ideas, we deliver a crash course in Hail Mary marketing to introduce some creative chaos in your structure. A little shaking up, after all, is sometimes the best kind of promotion!- Embrace the ‘limited availability’ angle and create a feeling of exclusivity for the people to bask in. Emphasize the limited number of tickets or seating, and scream out ‘fast selling’ and ‘last call’ messages throughout the last leg of your event promotion strategy. It creates a sense of urgency and makes people feel like they need to act fast to secure their spot.
- Try reaching out to locally famous personalities and known and trusted authoritative voices within your concerned industry or field. Inviting local celebrities and bloggers to attend sounds like a good start, and can sometimes solely be responsible for the success of an event. They connect with audiences at the ground level, can garner social proof for you and generate a decent amount of word-of-mouth marketing to get some additional sign-ups trickling in. This also works towards improving the event’s credibility, so that if you ever recreate the same event in the future, the mere fact that it was attended by these celebrities helps you gain loads of traction.
- Create a system where you involve others. Often we underestimate the power of people and how we can benefit from getting more of them onboard. Create a tier system of event registration where you involve individuals and offer them a chance to make a few quick bucks. Enable individuals to help you drive more audience with the help of incentives. Say, a registrant gets 5 seats sold through their referral link. Offer them the return value of one ticket and some added perk, such as a free meal or swag bags. This strategy should obviously be executed with finesse and the incentivization must be tempered on the basis of feasibility and affordability.
- Social media advertising is a cheap and effective medium as compared to traditional advertising. It helps you reach your ideal target audience and at the same time, you can measure your ads’ performance. Control is an added benefit when advertising on social media. You control every element in your advertisement, the amount you are willing to spend, who you would want to show your advertisement to and when you would like to advertise. Additionally, you can leverage social media to prompt the audience to participate via user-generated content that extends the longevity and scope of your event.
- You can combine the above two ideas to do a social media takeover- by an influencer or local personality within your reach and one your target audience would most connect to. Even for a day, you can introduce an element of surprise and change things up on your channels a little where they can share their excitement, offer exclusive peeks, and drum up interest from their own followers and fans.
- Do a countdown a few days from the event, counting down to the D-Day with little sneak-peeks, behind the scenes and creating a sense of FOMO so potent that people would hate to miss it. You can host an Instagram live, conduct a little impromptu interview with a speaker or guest of honour, or share the excitement of other noteworthy names on the guest list.
- You can also supplement the countdown by running various flash contests or giveaways. Offer free tickets or event swag to the first few people who respond with a creative comment or share your post, or garner the most impressions. It’s a quick way to generate excitement and spread the word. You can also share a series of fun prompts related to your business and the event for people to post their own pictures and videos, along with the event hashtag. Get the party going long before the event’s begun in actuality, and get people to register by creating a cherish-worthy experience.
- Host a pre-event. This can be a virtual conference, a workshop or even something that jolts people into attention, like a flash mob. You can also reach out to local businesses, such as a cafe, and pair up with them with a couple of signature drinks on theme with your event and promote it through a fresh, novel avenue that is bound to generate interest.
- Cultivate the fear of missing out further by amping up surprise elements, if any, in your event design. Is there an unexpected entertainment feature, or a hidden star attendee you haven’t yet revealed? How about a lucky draw to be held at the event venue? Or an exclusive after-party?
4. Conclusion
Never stop innovating. Necessity is the mother of invention and so, you must adapt to the need of the hour and do what is required and within your reach when it comes to last-minute event promotion. Strive to find a balance between taking bold steps and not amassing a hoard of limitless offers and discounts. Seek a valuable audience rather than simply a wide one. Remember, every last-minute push can make a big difference. With a little creativity and these aforementioned ideas in your arsenal, you can turn your event from a potential flop or a drab evening to a resounding success. Now go forth and promote like a champion!
